Love is All You Need Card

When I was cleaning up late last night after a glass of wine, I found my January 2019 SMAK kit, which had a bunch of Valentine themed stamps. Forgot about those! I love the vintage feel of the SMAK kits. I started remembering the last vintage collage kind of card I made (Let Adventure Card) was based on Stamperia paper, so I had to pull out another kit, the Time kit, to have it ready for today to look for ideas. (I’ve had the urge to paint another collage for awhile, though that’s not how this turned out.) But, while looking at it I noticed it had bunches of keyhole images and I thought it’d be great to pair the key stamp with it. I was so excited I decided I needed to stamp the key image right then and do a little test. Well, needless to say when I get crafting, I got lost in the moment and that’s when this card was started.

I pulled a scrap watercolor paper out and stamped the key with Evergreen Bough and Rusty Hinge oxides, Vintage Photo Distress, and black archival inks. I then pulled out my Gansai Tambi watercolors and dumped all the little pads on the floor! Yikes...what am I doing at midnight? Anyways, after putting them all back, I added black, mint and rust colors to the key. I then decided after I thought it matched pretty well with a keyhole to cut out that keyhole. Since I liked the look of the key, I decided to add a background to the key and stamped the hearts background stamp from the same kit using the above colors again. It’s slightly smaller than the key so I stamped it twice...which made an edge. I decided to use that line to make the key look like it was sitting on a book. I then went searching for a script I could add and found one in the 6/17 SMAK kit. So I stamped that around the key. I then added a shadow under the key. Unfortunately, I hadn’t stamped the key high enough on the paper so the book is shortchanged on the right side which I covered up with Washi tape and string and beads on the card. Figuring I needed to do one more thing before I went to bed, I stamped the sentiment on left over paper I created from a previous card that matched the colors. I then, again, added paint to the images and cut out a few words to see how it could come together in the morning if it ended up looking as good as it did last night. I then went to bed!

This morning, I was very excited to see it matched pretty well and added a few more details, like a tear in the paper, more dilineation between the pages and inking the edges. It was funny that at one point I tried to pick up the key...so I guess it turned out pretty realistic in the dim morning light. I finished fussy cutting and painting the sentiment. I pulled out beads and metal brass pieces. I added Art Anthology paint to the metal to make it blend more with the rusty vintage look. I did pose a question with my ATC friends as to whether I should add another painted image or call this good, and they rightly advised me to stop here. So, I pulled the card together finally and called it done!

Hope you enjoyed this one, I sure did! It’s always a such a wonderful fun challenge to me to match images with patterned paper. Don’t forget, if you like my style, click on the follow button or follow by email. Feel free to ask questions or provide feedback...always wanting to learn! Enough for now, happy crafting till next time!